Barefoot Costa Rica

This week we have been moving horses all over the place. The season is winding down now and we don't need to have so many horses at La Quina; we need to save the grass that we have for dry season. So this week Velvet and Archie moved over to a wonderful farm of 40 hectares with waterfalls, rivers and tons of grass. Velvet had a tendon injury so she has been off work for a while, well she seemed fully recovered when she was galloping around the new farm playing with Archie. I will get some photos of the waterfall (it is spectacular) this week but i will have to wait for my husband Chris to get back as he has the camera. 


Chris has taken a well earned surf break with our neighbour Joey. They gone down to the Southern Zone to a place called Pavones. It is beautiful down there. Enjoy it Chris, i have tons of work for you when you get back!!!


The two new horses Tequilla and Bryon were also moved to a new pasture this week. They didn't like the change in grass for the first couple of days and i was worried we would have to look for somewhere new for them; they were very underweight when we got them, so we didnt want to lose any of the weight they had gained, but thank goodness they love it now. 


Other great news this week; the wonderful Brita Rizzi of Barefoot saddles US has donated one of their amazing treeless saddles for Moro. Moro is one of our rescue horses that has proved really difficult to fit a saddle to. Brita was very thorough and had us take many photos of Moro from different angles, that way they can plan how to pad out the special saddle blanket that you need so that the horse is not only comfortable, but able to develop a better stronger back! Incredible. Barefoot Saddles and particularly Brita are well known for their wonderful generosity and love of horses. They support many rescue and therapeutic riding centres. We will be eternally grateful for them helping us with our rescues down here in Costa Rica. You should check out their website www.barefootsaddles.net they are all treeless saddles which goes great with our belief in natural horsemanship. When Moro's saddle arrives i will put up a photo of him wearing it!


The photos today are of me with Tequilla, one of our new horses, please excuse the state of us both it was Sunday!!
The second photo is off Chris and Byron the other new horse, ditto for them...it was Sunday.
The third photo is of the very clever designer of Barefoot Treeless Saddles and the next is of the wonderful saddle kindly donated by Brita Rizzi. Now we just need to find a way to get 9 more!!!!

This week we have had lots of afternoon rain so we have only been doing tours in the mornings, but a burning questions has been unanswered; where do the monkey's go when it rains? We can normally track them to a rough area of the farm when it is sunny, but in the rain they seem to disappear. We think they go deeper into the forest to get more shelter, but no one ever seems to see them go! When i find out i will let you know!!haha


We have a new guide this week called Nancy (also a Brit) as Julia is on holiday's in Canada and enjoying the high life on boats with wine!! Good for her, she deserves it. Nancy has been great and seems to have the wildlife magnet on, her groups have been lucky enough to see lots of monkeys, Toucans, and parrots. I had my own great wildlife moment yesterday when a white nosed coati (like a large raccoon with a long nose), he came running down a tree in front of us and took a huge leap down to the ground and ran off! He was beautiful, but quite old i think. We have seen him around before. He is getting more used to us and hangs around a bit more which is nice.


The new horses are coming on great and Tequila will soon come to the main farm to join the others, but Byron is going to take a bit more rest time and gain some more weight before he has to work out his place in the herd. Poor Velvet pulled a tendon in her back leg whilst playing around in the field so she is on rest break now. 


Chris has been busy building another barn to provide more shelter for the horses in the coming rains, he has made this one away from the main barn instead of connecting them. The problem with a herd is you always have very dominant ones who like to stand in the middle of the big barn and not let anyone else in!! 


Well, i had better sign off now as it is Sunday and we have to go feed the horses!

I can not believe it is August already and we have now been on the farm for 8 months now. It has been great, but challenging of course being it is virgin forests that needs constant managing. But we love it and are very happy we made the move.


Julie is leaving for Canada this week for some much deserved R and R, but hopefully she will hurry back as she is "El super guia" (the super guide)


Tuesday we have a friend coming to check out the tour who has bet me $10 he can lasso a cow! Should be funny as he has never done it before. I think my $10 is very safe in my pocket!!


We have been planning this week our hiking tours that we are going to be introducing next year, these are going to be amazing, we can cater to families just wanting a rain forest adventure to our full on hiking nuts, do we ever have a mountain for them to climb!


The new horses are coming along great, we are moving them to a field with more grass on Monday so they can continue to gain more weight, they are so sweet, i can't wait to get them on the main farm so i can start playing with them properly.


Remember we told you about the desperately ill "Mama" dog that we picked up. This is her after her emergency operation. She has a huge heart and is a fighter thats for sure. She is slowly gaining weight now and will be ready for adoption anytime now. Any takers???

This week has been an amazing week for monkey's. Nearly all our tour groups have seen them. Whitefaced and Spider monkeys have been putting on a great show.
Chris has been busy cutting a new trail to the waterfall as the other one has been way too muddy after our crazy rain last month. This trail will take everyone up the river and is really pretty. Can't wait to ride it myself.
Sad news is we lost the sloth that we we trying to reintroduce to the wild after it's mother rejected it. i guess nature really does know best and something must have been wrong with him. Still Giselle and Alonzo tried so hard and we were all sad to lose him.
The two new horses we have just got are coming on great and putting weight on nicely, can't wait to bring them to the main farm and introduce them to the gang, but that won't be for a while yet. They are called Byron and Tequilla, i will put up some photo's soon.

Just a quick one to say we had great news today. Parelli natural horsemanship have confirmed us as Official Bloggers for their Parelli Central website. Very happy, check it out !


http://central.parellinaturalhorsetraining.com/2010/07/meet-andrea-wady-costa-rican-parelli-natural-horsemanship-practitioner/#comments

It has been a full on week with new animals. Two days ago the horses i have just bought arrived. The poor things are in a really bad way it will be at least 4 months before we ride them. I have rented a new field and they will enjoy munching their way through that. They are both about 100-150lbs under their recommended weight. I won't post photos as it is too sad, but when they are looking a bit better i will introduce them to you!
The rescue dog we picked up had an operation this week and is now running around the yard with a big cone on her head. Most of the horses don't care, but Archie is sure she is going to kill him at any time!!
We have had lots of rain this week, so yesterday i spent a mammoth 3 hours cleaning saddles! They looked great afterwards, so i hope it doesnt rain again today!

After a crazy amount of rain the last few months we are enjoying a mini summer with blue sky and lots of sunshine. The cats are loving it and keep lying in any patch of sun they come across, even if that is under the horses feet, not good!
Chris and Alonzo have worked like crazy men this week making the most of the dry weather and patching up the weather damage on the trails. They look great now. Thanks boys.
This week brings yet another rescue dog, and this one is probably one of the worst we have had, but i think i say that everytime! She hopefully will be good though. Now we just need to find a home for Trevor! But i am sure the right family is out there for him. Any takers? He can go to the USA no problem.
Another animal joining our family this week is of a rarer nature. When Alonzo was working on the trails near the waterfall he came across a dead sloth. On closer inspection he saw a baby on its back. The baby is now being cared for by Giesele (Alonzos partner). He is eating (under instruction from the wildlife vet) green beans, carrots and other veggie and eating like a piggy. He should be able to be released soon, but one of his front claws is not working right. Hopefully this will sort itself out.
Costa Rica escape tours run by Don Aikinson presented us with the video they made of the tour this week. It is great, now you can get a sneak preview! Just click on the link below. Photos are of Sunshine the new rescue and the baby Sloath!


http://costaricaescapetours.com/?page_id=1102

This week we had the long awaited delivery of the pea gravel in the barn. Chris has wanted this for 2 years ever since he started barefoot trimming the horses. The horses feet have got a bit soft from all the rain, and this has been causing no end of problems on the tour as the hoof boots tend to come off in the mud. Now the gravel is in and toughening up their feet nicely. Mind you gravel and horse poo don't go hand in hand, and pulling on rubber gloves to clean up this morning was not top of my list of things to do on a Sunday; but there you go, these are the things we do for our animals!


Talking of animals, our latest rescue Trevor is now ready for adoption. He came to us after a traffic accident in which he came off worst than the car! He is a big goof ball and such a wonderful dog. I think out of all the dogs we have fostered this is going to be the hardest one to let go.  He will make a great addition to someones family and can go to the USA if anyone is looking for a dog!!


Today is 4th July and we are off to a beach barbeque so that we can be geared at by the Americans!! haha only kidding, but i won't be wearing my Union Jack teeshirt though. Chris always jokes that our American friends only invite us so they can throw us out again!!


Happy Independence day USA. The photos are of Trevor !

Last week was time for a much needed vacation. Chris and I were invited to Los Angeles to take part in some filming for Animal Planet. We helped a boy a while ago that had been attacked by a crocodile at the beach, and they are making a show about it. They flew us out and put us up in a very nice hotel! It was so much fun. It was the first time i have been in America and i really liked it,  i will be going back , so look out all our clients that said "You must come and visit us!!" We might just do that!!haha


Chris and I then rented a car and cruised around Hollywood, Sunset, and all the coastal towns. What a blast. But thank god for Sat Nav! Those highways are crazy!


Now it is back to reality. Still a nice reality it is, the horses all look great, thanks to Alonzo, Giselle and Julias hard work whilst we were gone. To keep the horses looking great in rainy season is hard as they always seem to prefer to stand in the rain and not the barn! So far we still have super shiny happy horses.


Working Archie was incredibly rewarding this week as he is really making progress now and becoming less nervous and more inquisitive, which is just what you look for in training, so very happy.


The photos are of Chris and I at Huntington Pier and of Chris considering stealing the Bugatis Veron that was parked on Rodeo Drive.

Rain, rain and more rain has been the go this week. We had to cancel every tour we had this week, which wasn't good. Never mind these things happen. The rain was relentless.  


We did finally managed to take two wonderful honeymooners out yesterday, poor things had been subjected to nothing but rain for their whole week. We luckily got a break in the clouds and got them out and they loved it. Champagne and strawberries at a private waterfall will brighten any day i reckon!


With the rain came the usual round of problems, trees down, minor flooding, sulking dogs and horses that would rather go out and get wet then be in  lovely warm barn! Every time we turned around the cats had curled up on the horse blankets, the dogs had crept in under the saddle racks and curled up on the blankets waiting to be washed! And the horses were trying to escape from the barn! When we let them out after the worst of the rain had passed, they went around the field like their tails were on fire! It was beautiful to watch.


Finally the sun has appeared today and the clean up can begin! The photo is of me on Casper after checking the trails for fallen trees. It looks bad, but i was having a blast ! The other is of Rusty clearly unimpressed by the rain!